Testing of radio communication subsystems for the NUTS CubeSat on a meteorological balloon flight from Andøya in 2014

In April 2014, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Test Satellite (NUTS) team carried out a balloon campaign at Andøya, Norway. The purpose was to test the on-board UHF and VHF radio prototypes. In accordance with the project mission goals, this campaign marked the test of the engineering model’s communication subsystems. One of the mission requirements was that these systems should be as close to the final flightmodel as possible. Parts of the system were built and assembled in advance at NTNU, and the final system integration was carried out at Andøya. A standard PTU probe with a GPS module transmitting the balloon’s location in the UHF band was used to track the flight. The probe was mounted below the NUTS payload box. The payload radios was tracked using Yagi antennas based on the received GPS coordinates from the PTU probe. A two-way communication link was established and maintained between the balloon and the ground station. This paper will present the results from the mission as well as lessons learned related to the preparation and execution of balloon campaigns.